>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tom Walker" <timework at vcn.bc.ca>
>>Hear, hear. There is no way that the govt. of the U.S. could 'pass' on the
>>mass murder of U.S. civilians (regardless of sociological hypotheses) and
>>retain any semblance of legitimacy. To suggest, demand or propose otherwise
>>is to engage in fantasy. Although it may also be wishful thinking, there is
>>even the possibility that formulating a measured, appropriate military
>>response could force the U.S. government to jettison some of their
>>superstitious and ideological baggage.
>
>The progressive goal has to be to focus that military response narrowly on
>those responsible, a sentiment that has widespread support with the public,
>who have been heard repeatedly to say they want blood, but the right blood.
You mean assassination, or "targeted killing" in the media parlance of the moment about Israel & Palestinians? I'm opposed to reversing executive orders & legalizing it again, though I'd expect that in the coming weeks & months more would advocate such a course of action.
***** Assassination Is Not Good Foreign Policy
By Stentor Danielson
Every time national attention turns to Iraq, we hear the same refrain: "We should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein while we had the chance." George H.W. Bush, who was content during his time in office simply to liberate Kuwait, has since written that he should have pressed onward to Baghdad and dethroned Hussein.
Now, with the latest spate of action in the Persian Gulf region, talk of eliminating the Iraqi President has resurfaced. Unfortunately for all the would-be assassins, several executive orders -- most notably Order 12333, signed in 1976 by Gerald Ford - prohibit that course of action. Ford's order states: "No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States should engage in assassination or conspire to engage in assassination."
Quietly, Representative Bob Barr (R-Ga.) has introduced a bill -- H.R. 19, "Terrorist Elimination Act of 2001" -- that would reinstate the power of the government to order foreign troublemakers killed. This would follow up on the authorization earlier this month of $4 million in federal funding for the Iraqi National Congress, a coalition of anti-Hussein groups within Iraq.
It is a promising sign that Barr's bill has no co-sponsors and is gaining little attention from government leaders. The United States has no business ordering or endorsing assassinations....
<http://people.colgate.edu/sdanielson/disc022601.html> *****
Not that legal prohibitions have made a large difference in U.S. foreign policy, but still and all, paraphrasing Stentor Danielson, I say _leftists_ have no business ordering or endorsing assassinations by the U.S. government or its proxies.
Yoshie